Page 34 of The Dragons’ Eternal Mate

Nina folded her arms. “I agree. Byron can go sit on a cactus—he’s disgusting.”

“I hate that he’s involved in this,” I said as Ma chuckled at Nina’s colorful description.

“Speaking of prickly little shits, how are my boys doing?” she asked, turning to look at me. “How are they really doing?”

I sighed. “As well as can be expected. Bastian wants to call in reinforcements. Loads of them. He doesn’t care about looking weak. He just wants to keep the horde safe. I think the others agree with him.”

“That’s good. We need all the help we can get…” Ma trailed off, looking into the distance.

“Thank God they’re not trying to be all macho and saying they can deal with this on their own. That’s how a lot of hordes get into bad situations in the first place,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, there’s been many a horde that’s been obliterated because of their foolish pride. But luckily, we have something those hordes didn’t have.” Ma smiled.

I cocked my head. “What?”

“You, honey.” She squeezed my hand, Nina grinned at me, and my cheeks heated.

Still, after a moment, Ma’s expression changed, and she looked at her injury, softly asking, “What color will the burns end up?”

I paused for a moment. It would be better to show her than to tell her. I was wearing one of the guys’ hoodies over a sports bra, so I grabbed the hem of it and pulled it over my head, exposing my stomach and upper chest.

Ma’s eyes went wide, her hands shooting up to her mouth.

“If I’ve done my job well enough, hopefully all the skin will be pale, with this holographic sheen eventually. It took me a long time to get here. For the first year, the scarring was red and angry, and black in places.” I ran my hand over the left side of my stomach. “The skin will never be the same, especially here where I took the hits. There’s always going to be texture, and there are mornings when it’s slightly sore. This is also significantly darker than the rest of my scars.”

It was more of a dull gray instead of the pale cream that a lot of my scarring had faded to.

Ma held my stare. “It’s been so painful… and what you went through. How long did it take?”

I grimaced, the memories running through my head like a bad movie. “It was several months before I was lucid. There were days I prayed to die so I could feel some relief. Kiki dragged me back, though, no matter how many times I didn’t think it was worth it.”

Ma was quiet for a moment.

“Rowan?”

“Yes?” I turned away from the bandage to look at her, pausing when I noticed her tears. “Crap, is this too tight? I can⁠—”

“No, it’s not that at all.” She wiped away the tears with her good hand. “Nina, my dear, can you give us a moment?”

Nina nodded, and despite looking concerned, she left the room.

Alone in the quiet of her room, Ma stared at me, taking my hand and squeezing it hard, hers trembling. I could feel my heart beating as I waited, less than patient.

“I owe you an apology, Rowan.”

I shook my head. “Why? You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I was a coward. Twenty-five years ago.”

“What does twenty-five years ago have to do with now?” I asked shakily.

“I’ve never told anyone. Orsen… I wanted to protect him. I never told him who his father was.”

Tension hung, poised on the edge of a knife. “Who?”

“His name was Edmond. He was… Cyrus’s older brother.”

“Wait”—I shook myself, my mind reeling—“he has an older brother? Where is he?” If he had an elder brother, why the hell had Cyrus been the Alpha of North Oak?